1814.] Imperial Institute. 463 



It seems more difficult at present to find a substitute for coffee 

 than for sugar. Attempts have been made to torrefy different kinds 

 of grain and roots. But tbe liquids produced had nothing of coffee 

 but the colour and bitterness. 



M. Levrat, a physician at Chatillon on the Chalaronne, thinks 

 that the seed of the common sedge [iris pseudacorus) is what 

 approaches nearest to coffee. When dried, and freed from the 

 husk that adheres to it, it is roasted and infused in the same way as 

 coffee. He finds that the seed of the iris is a complete substitute 

 for coffee in its febrifuge properties, and may therefore be used 

 instead of bark. This would be a discovery the more important 

 because as iris grows in marshes we could no longer reproach nature 

 with not having placed the remedy near the disease. 



Since bees are no longer destroyed in order to deprive them of 

 their honey, various methods have been thought of to drive bees 

 from one hive to another without being stung by them. M. 

 Chambon, a physician at Paris, has proposed one which appears 

 simple and sure. It is to have hives which may be opened above, 

 to place them upon a metallic plate under which smoke is formed, 

 and to put above the opening an empty hive, into which the smoke 

 forces the bees to pass. 



The same author has made experiments to determine whether it 

 would be advantageous to clothe the sheep, as the ancients did, who 

 boast greatly of this plan. He did not find that the wool increased 

 sufficiently in beauty and value to pay the expense of the clothing. 



M. Chambon has likewise read a memoir on the dangers which 

 anatomists run in their dissections, and on the means of preventing 

 and curing them. They are sometimes terrible, but luckily they 

 are rare. The remedies and preservatives belong to those which 

 physicians recommend against contagion and venomous sores. 



M. Orfila, a young Spanish physician, has presented a great work 

 on poisons considered with a view to medicine and jurisprudence. 

 Hitherto the Class has only seen the first volume, which treats of 

 the poisons from mercury, arsenic, antimony, and copper. The 

 author lias made many experiments on the difference which the 

 presence of aliments occasions in the way in which poisons act 

 when mixed with re-agents, differences which in certain cases may 

 conceal their properties, and prevent them from being ascertained. 

 He has pointed out all the precautions necessary to be taken by 

 chemists to make a faithful report before a court of justice when 

 they are consulted. He has examined with the greatest care all the 

 methods proposed to stop ihe deleterious effects of these poisons, 

 and to find new remedies when the old ones did not answer the 

 purpose. The oidy antidote lor corrosive sublimate, according to 

 M. Orfila, i-, albumen or white of egg mixed with water; and thai 

 fur verdigris is common sugar in pieces — fortunate discoveries to 

 which theory would never hare led. 



.\I. 1'ictct, according t<i his p|;ui of communicating to the Clfl - 



all that hi- extensive correspondence brings to his knowledge rela- 

 tive to the sciences which we cultivate, has this jreai communicated 



